Raymond Goslitski's first bloguette

Hello, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Raymond Goslitski and I used to live in Leuven, Belgium. I moved to Wiltingen in Germany in April 2008 to enjoy a more rural way of life. From my name you will deduce that I am not of Belgian or German origin, and you will be right, for I was obviously born in Kent, UK. And my name is as British as the Royal Navy. Actually, it's Polish-Russian, but mainly Polish with a French spelling.

It all started with the aristocratic lines of a Szlachta (aristocratic) dynasty in Poland in a small village near Płock in the centre of the country. My ancestors were originally from that village which even now only accommodates 24 people and a few domestic animals, therefore people with my surname are pretty rare. Even rarer, considering the spelling was changed from the original.

This occurred at the beginning of the 20th century when my grandfather, the young Eugene Alexander Goslitski, left Batumi, Georgia, where his father was apparently working with the Rothschilds, although no record of him is located there, and headed for France. He received his education there and almost became a Catholic priest, but fortunately he liked women too much, or I would never have been born. His guardians, an uncle and an aunt, whose names I think I now know, were not very nice to him and he decided to go to sea.

He trained as an engineer and joined the merchant navy where his chances took him to Montréal and from there to London. He met his future wife, Florence Maud Petterson, and produced eight children, one of which was my father.

The reason for the change in spelling in the name is quite simple, and as a linguist, I am in the perfect position to tell you this, having a degree in this area, but I won't because I would prefer to tell you once I have all the family documented and the history is clear.

My family history is still a little cloudy, but one of the leading ancestors was known for contributing to the compilation of the Polish Commonwealth Constitution almost two centuries after his death. He wrote a forward-thinking paper and many of his words are visible in other constitutions today, including the US.

I am still tracking the complete story of what happened between 1607 and 1900, but I am sure I will get there in the end. I am reading up on the family line, and although all the material is in Polish, I, along with some of Europe's finest translators, will piece together the respective information. I do not intend to reveal too many details about things until I am sure of the facts, because I want to make sure they are totally correct. Furthermore, an artist never reveals the painting until it is complete. I also don't believe in giving out information for free, especially if I am doing the legwork. I have enough family in the UK who, if they were really interested, could pop along to the National Archives and check it out for themselves. But from Germany it gets expensive. I have already been once in March 2009 to the National Archives, despite asking others to go there. Still, if you want a job done, better do it yourself. So much for teamwork. And even if the person I asked to go went, I haven't heard back. So much for trust.

I am planning a trip to Poland in summer, and eventually Marseille and Montréal. More nearer the time.

What do I do? I am a language trainer and linguistic adviser for international institutions, formerly in Brussels, now in Luxembourg, and my passion is language. I hope to go into more detail about this in future blogs. I also enjoy photography, and although this is only a hobby, I enact my fantasies through photography on a frequent basis. My photo-website is http://www.goslitski.net/.

I don't talk much about the rest of my private life because there are some things I like to save for myself, but I hope to add my own contribution to the ever-crowded space on the Internet and who knows? Someone might actually read this stuff!